Three Course Lunacy

Cooking for other people is always a pleasure, especially when it goes well.  You have a whole range of options too, from something simple and tasty right up to the full blown dinner party.  This weeks decision was sort of a combination of the two.  Since I was cooking for a friend who a) knew I liked to try things out and b) was a big foodie I decided to do something ... interesting.  How did it turn out?  Read on, dear friend, read on.

So, the menu had to be decided upon first and foremost.  And somewhere in there needed to be the comfort zone so I knew at least one course would work ... just ... in ... case.  Also, as we all know, the more you can prepare in advance the better.  So, where to go?  For inspiration I turned to three of my favourite sources, Heston Blumenthal, Michel Roux Jnr and Raymond Blanc.  Incidently my ideal dinner party guests, as long as it's them cooking!  As such the menu ended up looking like this:

Red Cabbage Gazpacho, Mustard Ice Cream
Magret de Cannard Bordelaise
Mango Ravioli, Coconut Jus

It doesn't really matter how good a recipe is, I'm unlikely to follow it to the letter.  Partly because I always adjust things slightly to my tastes, but mainly because I always forgot to shop until really late in the day and then some of the required ingredients are going to be glaringly absent!  However, prep began and seemingly well.

The desert takes a few days, purely due to the need to freeze things, allowing them to be rock solid before moving on to the next stage.  So it was that Sunday saw the making of the coconut milk panacotta that is the bedrock of the dish. I've made this a few times before, it's always tricky but I felt fairly confident in it's execution and, save a slight shortage on gelatine sheets, all went to plan.  The hope was that I would simply have a slightly softer pannacotta ... the hope was.  Things would not be fully revealed until about an hour before serving.  No pressure!  At least at this point I could relax.
Monday evening was step two of the whole process, it would also be the day to make the mustard ice cream.  This ice cream was the source of many odd looks when I was talking to people ... although when it comes to food this isn't an unusual situation.  I'll admit that out of context this may be an odd thing to make but I wasn't about to put it in a cone!  This would sit in the centre of the soup and add a creamyness to the whole affair.  It was a fairly straight forward recipe as it goes and the final product was really quite delicious.  Once fully churned it was potted up and placed into the freezer, another job done.

The next stage of the ravioli was the "filling", another simple part of the dish.  In my version (due to that late shopping), it was just diced mango and some passion fruit mixed with chopped mint leaves.  This was loaded into the silicon moulds and topped with discs of the, now frozen, pannacotta and returned to the freezer over night.

Tuesday, time to jelly the ravioli.  This always the bit that makes me nervous.  If you don't get them covered they leak, everywhere, once defrosted.  Turns out this was to be the least of my worries.  Somehow the filling and the pannacotta had parted company over night, I clearly assembled badly ... but I'd been so careful!  This was never going to work, there were huge gaps ... I couldn't coat this.  A rescue mission was on the cards.  I carefully seperated the two componants and set about shaving a flat surface on each, once happy that the join looked OK I painted mango juice onto both pieces, pushed together and returned to the freezer.  This had to work, had to.  If it didn't I would be without desert and that wouldn't exactly be the ideal ending.  It's a very odd feeling being nervous about a dessert.  That only normally happens when there are two you can't choose between, in the gap between ordering and arrival, have I made the right choice?

Wednesday and it was time to check if my emergency repair had worked.  It seemed it had.  To say I was relieved would be an understatement.  The woods was not fully escaped from yet however as the jelly coating still needed to be applied.  I've learnt the hard way that it's very easy to end up with a fridge full of fruit juice if your coverage is off.  I prepared the jelly, let it cool to and then dipped the ravioli.  Looked OK so back to the freezer and cross fingers.  This is where they would live until around 1 on Thursday when they would be moved to the fridge to defrost.
Thursday night, very shortly it will be go time.  First though, the soup!  This is a pretty simple affair which is a relief after the stress of dessert.  A process of juicing and making a mayonaise to thicken.
All done, I can do no more now until it's time to serve.

-

Serving time and the starter was just a case of blending in some fresh red wine mayo and adding the ice-cream.  It was completely delicious, refreshing and interesting.  The ice cream melting in and making the soup creamy, the cucumber was crunchy and added another burst of freshness.

The main course, finally back on more familiar ground with some classic french cooking.  Beautiful, soft duck breast with a red wine sauce and wild mushrooms.  I served up with a pomme puree (well, mash ... let's be honest) as I wanted to  keep things a little simplier after all the previous days of prep.  In hindsight I wish I'd made the potato cakes as suggested in Michel Roux's book as there would have been some extra texture.  It is a classic for a reason though and I heartily recommened trying it out.

Dessert ... here we go ...

It worked!! If nothing else this proved I need to work on my presentation, I am well aware of how this looks!  It was tasty though.  It wasn't as liquid as hoped, but it was at least tasty.  What I'm saying is I'm taking this as a win ... maybe not a win, maybe bronze ... but definitely not last place.

All in all, a pretty successful outcome. I will be trying all these dishes again, trying to hone the finish and presentation.

But not for a while ... I couldn't handle the stress again yet ...

Thanks to John for the photos.

Sources:

Heston Blumenthal at Home - Heston Blumenthal (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heston-Blumenthal-at-Home/dp/1408804409/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424340565&sr=8-1&keywords=heston+at+home)

The French Kitchen - Michel Roux Jr (http://www.amazon.co.uk/French-Kitchen-Recipes-Master-Cooking/dp/0297867237/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1424340657&sr=8-3&keywords=michel+roux)

Kitchen Secrets - Raymond Blanc (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Secrets-Raymond-Feb-21-2011-Hardback/dp/B00BOL9BLI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1424340691&sr=8-2&keywords=kitchen+secrets)